Watch that grass: City issuing fines for overgrown lawns and fields

11:48 AM,
Jun. 28, 2013

The grass has gone to seed in the overgrown lawn of a house on Broadway Avenue. Residents with grass a foot tall have 10 days after receiving a posted warning to mow their grass or pay for the city to do so.

Written by

Dan Holtmeyer
DHOLTMEYER@NEWS-LEADER.COM

As summer officially begins, Springfield has seen a sharp uptick in overgrown and wild lawns and fields, and the city has responded accordingly, dropping a $200 fee on hundreds of residents who aren't cutting their grass.

The city's Building Development Services, which under city law steps in

when a homeowner's grass and weeds grow to a foot high or more, had received more than 1,000 complaints of overgrown lawns so far this year by the summer solstice, putting 2013 on pace to clear last year's 1,650 total by several hundred calls. ...